50 Or “Indeed” (cf. “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in .
51 Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.
52 Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. ).
53 The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’étam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”
54 The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.
55 Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

For wickedness burns like a fire;

it consumes briers and thorns;

it kindles the thickets of the forest,

and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts

the land is scorched,

and the people are like fuel for the fire;

no one spares another.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Surely wickedness burns like a fire;

it consumes briers and thorns,

it sets the forest thickets ablaze,

so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

By the wrath of the Lord Almighty

the land will be scorched

and the people will be fuel for the fire;

they will not spare one another.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

For wickedness burns like a fire

that consumes thorns and briers

and kindles the forest thickets

so that they go up in a column of smoke.

The land is scorched

by the wrath of the Lord of Armies,

and the people are like fuel for the fire.

No one has compassion on his brother.

NLTNew Living Translation

This wickedness is like a brushfire.

It burns not only briers and thorns

but also sets the forests ablaze.

Its burning sends up clouds of smoke.

The land will be blackened

by the fury of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

The people will be fuel for the fire,

and no one will spare even his own brother.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

For wickedness burned like fire;

it consumed brier and thorn.

And it kindled the thickets of the forest,

and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.

The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,

and the people became like fire fuel.

People had no compassion toward each other.

KJV 1900King James Version

For wickedness burneth as the fire:

It shall devour the briers and thorns,

And shall kindle in the thickets of the forest,

And they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened,

And the people shall be as the fuel of the fire:

No man shall spare his brother.

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